Search for Remains: 9/11 Families Want Feds to Check Site

Search for Remains
9/11 Families Want Feds to Check Site

By GINGER ADAMS OTIS

Family members of those killed on Sept. 11, 2001 rallied at the World Trade Center Nov. 2 and renewed their demand that the city turn over to Federal authorities the search for human remains.

Echoing a request initially made by U.S. Sen. Charles E. Schumer, they called upon the Defense Department to deploy a team from the Joint POW/MIA Accountability Command to Ground Zero.

Forensic Specialists

JPAC teams are made up of specially-trained forensic scientists assigned to recover remains of U.S. military personnel from conflict zones around the globe.

Mr. Schumer first called for a JPAC team in April, when workers dismantling the Deutsche Bank building at Ground Zero found human remains while removing the roof ballast.

The Chief-Leader/Ginger Adams Otis PERSONAL ISSUE: FDNY Lieut. Edward Henry of Engine 276, holding a picture of his brother Joseph from Ladder 21, is one of many 9/11 family members who want a Federal team of scientists to oversee renewed recovery efforts at Ground Zero. 'If remains were discarded, it's a disgrace,' he said, noting that no DNA from his brother or the other ladder company members who perished with him has ever been found.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last month, more remains were found in an abandoned manhole by Con Edison workers. Since then, the Bloomberg administration has begun re-examining other sections of the area where additional bone fragments might be found. The search is being overseen by Deputy Mayor Ed Skyler, the Department of Design and Construction and the Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center.

More than 200 shards of bone and other remains have recently been discovered, according to the latest reports.

The results could help the Medical Examiner's Office identify more 9/11 victims. Because so little DNA evidence was found at Ground Zero, the ME's Office was able to identify only 1,151 of the attack victims - about 40 percent of those who died.

The Chief-Leader/Ginger Adams Otis ENDLESS PAIN: The day before some recently-recovered remains at Ground Zero were identified as belonging to two passengers on the airliners that crashed into the Twin Towers, family members who lost loved ones on 9/11 urged Mayor Bloomberg to 'once and for all' make a clean sweep of the area. It's like 'reliving the day all over again every time there's a new discovery,' said one mother.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Many groups, such as 9/11 Families of Firefighters and WTC Families for a Proper Burial, have argued for years that the city's post-9/11 searches were perfunctory. They also protested the city's decision to send much of the waste from the area to the Fresh Kills landfill in Staten Island without properly sifting for human remains.

"We first got involved in this battle over the Fresh Kills landfill," said Diane Horning, president and co-founder of WTC Families for a Proper Burial. "It never occurred to us that they had also left remains behind at Ground Zero."

'Bring in JPAC'

Ms. Horning said her organization had concerns about the city's ability to properly oversee a recovery project at Ground Zero, which is scheduled for ongoing development for the next 10 years.

Across the street from the area is Fiterman Hall, which, like the Deutsche Bank, was damaged on 9/11 and is scheduled for demolition. The groups want JPAC to be involved in that as well. "The city keeps telling us what wonderful people they have in the ME's office, and that's true. But they aren't in charge," said Ms. Horning. "They keep telling us what wonderful workers they have, and that's true. But they also aren't in charge."

The agencies currently spearheading the search efforts at Ground Zero are "the same ones who said to pave over the remains before," Ms. Horning said.

"JPAC has no other ax to grind; it's not interested in building down there or the culture down there," she added. "They are only interested in human remains. We're not asking for a work stoppage. We're asking for a team that will bring focus and managerial skills."

The families' positions were supported by local elected officials and union leaders. U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, who represents the 8th Congressional District that encompasses lower Manhattan, and Uniformed Fire Officers' Association Peter L. Gorman both attended last week's rally.

Mr. Gorman recalled the days after 9/11 when then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani had a group of firefighters arrested because they resisted his order to stop recovery efforts at the site. The union leader thanked the firefighters, Police Officers and Port Authority officers who led the searches and continued to push for better excavation and recovery efforts long after city and Federal officials had declared there was nothing left to find.

Bitter Towards Giuliani

Even though he later expanded the search effort, "Mayor Giuliani was wrong," Mr. Gorman said simply.

Sally Regenhard, a member of 9/11 Families of Firefighters and the mother of Firefighter Christian Regenhard, who died along with all the members of his company that day, said the decision was "the shame of the Giuliani administration."

As plans move forward to build on the site, the city needs "a comprehensive expert assessment of what the situation is in Fiterman Hall and certainly in the surrounding areas," Ms. Regenhard asserted. "We've lacked that since 9/11."